A Rhetorical Analysis of 'When My Kids Unplugged'

The text, "When My Kids Unplugged," uses three rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. The author, Susan Maushart, is pretty good at using logos to explain why she and her kids unplugged from the internet for six months. She’s an American author and journalist who works in the U.S. and Australia. Her knowledge comes from her own experience and from what others have gone through. Susan Maushart tells us that being away from the internet can help us in the long run because we need to live real life. The use of these rhetorical appeals shows that her kids haven’t really lived their lives because of technology. She does fall short a bit by not providing polls or stats from other authors, but she gives her own real-life experiences.

The author not only uses her own ideas and experiences, but she also brings in thoughts and evidence from others to prove her point. Even though she uses other people’s credentials, it gets the job done. The first rhetorical appeal is ethos. According to Tufekci, “On the Internet today, everybody knows you’re a dog. If you don’t want people to know you’re a dog, you’d better stay away from a keyboard” (97). The way he uses this figure of speech shows how he feels about it. I think the use of a figure of speech puts an image in the audience's head because they can understand the argument better. Ethos is about credentials. Susan Maushart is basically borrowing Tufekci’s ethos. Using ethos proves it works. Having another person’s view on something gets the audience’s attention. Sure, the author had her own thoughts on why she quit the internet, but she needed an extra opinion. According to Flickr’s co-founder Caterina Fake, “These technologies allow you to be much more broadly friendly, but you just spread yourself much more thinly over many more people” (97). Sometimes, technology has a purpose. What’s the point of meeting friends in person when you can text them on social media? It’s for getting to know people, but I think you get to know someone better in person. The basic idea of ethos is to show people that you’re speaking your mind on a topic.

The next rhetorical appeal the author uses is pathos. According to Maushart, “My worst fear as a parent was that my kids might lose an alternative frame of reference—that growing up as Digital Natives, they would swallow the pancake paradigm whole and forget there were more nourishing ways for friends and family to connect” (98). Pathos is all about emotion. Examples of pathos include pity, fear, promise of gain, or identity. Susan Maushart is stating how she feels about her kids and social media. She uses fear to catch the reader’s attention, making them think maybe the internet is bad for us. It’s there to draw them towards the author’s point of view. The argument is to persuade them to think like her. She’s also saying the internet can be dangerous. For example, kids can get picked on verbally, mentally, and physically. Being online can take people away from what’s important because focusing on something temporary can make you lose something really important. It’s better to talk and connect with family and friends face to face rather than on social media. Why wouldn’t someone want to see their loved ones in person? Yes, people use social media to stay in touch, but they’d love seeing each other in person more. Susan’s points are well-developed because she’s sharing her emotions about social media. According to Maushart, “Digital Natives breathe technology in order to...well, breathe” (100). Her kids were becoming “Digital Natives” because all they did was go online. It’s clear she fears the internet because she doesn’t want her kids to grow up focusing on it their whole lives instead of living real life.

The last rhetorical appeal is logos. Logos is all about reason or logic. According to her son Bill, “The technology ban was nothing but a trigger” (99). He’s saying it opened his eyes to what he was missing because he was too caught up in the internet. Being so into something can make you realize how much you’re missing. Like my mom says, “Everything that glitters isn’t gold.” Logos is also about logic, using common sense. If people don’t see the internet as holding them back, they’ve got a problem. When Bill was away from the internet for a while, he did something some people might not expect. According to Maushart, “He started spending more time at the beach and pool, catching up with friends he hadn’t connected with since primary school” (98). Bill has a lot of logic. If something was taken away from him, he’d get out of the house and hang with friends he’d been distant from. People don’t need the internet for everything. Communicating with friends or family should be done in person, not just online.

The overall point is that people don’t need social media or the internet to do things. According to Maushart, “Loss of Facebook (not to mention loss of MSN and MySpace) seemed to increase her focus generally; at the same time, it put her out of the loop with her old friends” (99). Susan was talking about her daughter. The internet was a minor setback for them all. Being with friends and family is more important. Social media is just a tool. We could all learn something from Susan, and maybe one day, we’ll all unplug for a while and just live life.